Spero Dedes’ dad was having none of it.
Described by his son, the Knicks new radio play-by-play man, as “old school,” Peter Dedes has run the Union Plaza Diner on Route 22 in Union for more than 35 years. And he wasn’t keen on dropping $30,000 a year on tuition at Fordham University so his son could get a degree in communications, find that he couldn’t land a job, and return to the diner where Spero had worked while growing up.
So Dedes, who never wanted to be anything other than a sportscaster, started his undergraduate career as a business major. It was the only way his dad would agree to pay the freight.
“His whole thing was, ‘It’s too competitive. I’m not going to spend all that money on tuition and have you just come back to the diner when you were done,”’ Dedes said. “He just flat-out didn’t think I’d be able to get a job.”
Dedes grudgingly accepted his father’s terms, but a finite math class during his freshman year nearly sent him over the edge. The math was only part of the problem. His professor’s thick, Indian accent took care of the rest.
“It was the most basic college math course you can take,” he said. “I remember driving home and telling my dad, ‘I’m going to flunk out of this class. You either have to let me transfer into the communications school or I’m just going to come home, give up and come into the family business.’
“He reluctantly agreed and now he’s my biggest fan. … It’s really cool the way it all played out.”
Like so many of his play-by-play peers, Dedes, 32, knew what he wanted to do for a living at a very early age.
“As far back as I can remember,” he said.
Pick-up basketball games with friends were played against the backdrop of Dedes’ incessant play by play. So were countless video games.
“Everyone thought I was completely nuts,” he said, “and here I am 20 years later doing this. It’s pretty wild.”
Wilder still have been the last few months when Dedes left the beach life of southern California and the Lakers, where had been the radio play-by-play man since the 2005-06 season, to return home. In addition to his radio duties, Dedes, who will continue his work for CBS on the NFL and college basketball, also will be Mike Breen’s primary backup on the MSG Network.
It was not long after Dedes accepted the Knicks job — but before he had signed his contract — when he was arrested on a DWI charge. Police pulled him over in Southampton early one morning during the July 4 weekend.
“I took full responsibility for that,” Dedes said. “It was just kind of a crummy way to make a first impression with a new employer. Here the Knicks are giving me this wonderful opportunity and I kind of felt like I let them down and [also] my family.
“It was an unfortunate mistake on my part. … But the Knicks stood by me and that’s something I’m not going to forget. … The Knicks could have gone the other way — absolutely. It was a tense couple of days for me. It was not fun.”
With the incident behind him, Dedes can concentrate on the task at hand, broadcasting the games of the team he lived and died with as a kid growing up in Paramus, N.J.
Dedes listened to all the usual suspects. But with Knicks basketball as his first love, he paid special attention to Marv Albert and Mike Breen.
“Marv was the guy for me,” he said. “I was a die-hard Knicks fan growing up, so I heard Marv do all the games on MSG and, once I got past Marv, Mike Breen was my guy.
“I can remember at a certain point I stopped paying attention to the games and really started to become fascinated with what the announcers were saying. I can’t explain it. It sounds weird for a kid who’s that young. … I just had this early passion for play by play.”
At a university and radio station (WFUV) that has become an assembly line for quality play-by-play men — see Vin Scully, Bob Papa, Chris Carrino, Michael Kay and Breen — Dedes, a 2001 Fordham graduate, stood out.
According to public relations executive John Cirillo, who teaches a communications course at Fordham and was instrumental in jump-starting Dedes’ career, Kay tuned into a broadcast on WFUV one night and heard Dedes doing basketball play by play. Soon after, he phoned the Rev. Joseph A. O’Hare, then Fordham’s president. and wanted to know why students were no longer being allowed to broadcast the Rams’ games.
He quickly was told that Dedes was, in fact, a student.
Breen had a similar reaction when he flipped on the radio to catch the score of a Rams’ basketball game and caught Dedes for the first time. He ended up listening to the entire second half.
“I don’t think I ever heard a student who sounded like that,’’ Breen said. “I don’t think a guy who broadcasts the NBA could have done a better job that night. I called the station to find out who it was.”
The two have been friends ever since.
“I remember talking with him early in his career and telling him to keep his chin up, that it’s going to take a little while,” Breen said. “It didn’t take a while. … He’s scary good.”
One of Dedes’ earliest gigs following graduation was as Ian Eagle’s backup for Nets telecasts on YES.
Eagle, a phenom himself when he landed the Jets radio play-by-play job at the age of 25 in 1994, recognizes a good, young announcer when he sees one.
“Spero had the sound of a big-time broadcaster from Day 1, and that’s rare in this business,” Eagle said. “From a young age, he was always focused on improving and taking the next step. His style is old school, which served him well in L.A. and will do the same here in New York.’’
Cirillo remembers taking his students to a workshop at Giants Stadium where their tapes were evaluated by Papa, the Giants play-by-play man. Cirillo said Papa had nothing to say about Dedes, so Cirillo asked him why.
“I really didn’t have anything to criticize,” Papa told him. “He did everything perfectly.’’
After a long, often sticky, summer that included the NBA lockout, Dedes can’t wait to walk into the Garden today for the Knicks’ season opener with the Celtics
“It sounds a little corny and cliché, but it’s really a dream come true,” he said. “I basically went to Fordham wanting to get to this point. This was always the place.
“It’s just come kind of come full circle for me. It’s really incredible. … But I don’t think it’s really hit me yet.’’